


The art of parenting

by AliaMael



Series: Learning curve [7]
Category: Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: Attempt At Parenting, Gen, Sanae is clueless but he's trying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-13 03:35:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29520255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AliaMael/pseuds/AliaMael
Summary: How the heck do you parent when neither you nor the child is human but you're both pretending anyway? ("Panicking", while correct, is not the right answer.)
Relationships: Hanekoma Sanae & Minamimoto Sho, Hanekoma Sanae & Yashiro Uzuki
Series: Learning curve [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1888963
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	The art of parenting

**Author's Note:**

> I had this fic waiting in a folder for another one supposed to take place before it in the series timeline, and then I realized reordering a series after posting was a done thing, so here it is ^^ Hope you enjoy!

Sanae was glad to see Sho making friends. More than glad even. He was downright _happy_ for him. And so, so proud of his… his…

(His child, he could admit in the secrecy of his thoughts, even if he didn't dare say it out loud.)

He was also _zetta anxious_ (and yeah, Sho's way of speaking was rubbing off on him). He'd been anxious when Sho was too young to _human_ , anxious during that nerve-wrecking Game between Joshua and Megumi, and now he was _still_ anxious. It was getting tiring, but he couldn't stop it.

He didn't like how Sho had become Joshua's sole focus for entertainment. It was not a _safe_ position to be in. Joshua tended to toy with people, and rarely in a consensual way.

Joshua probably didn't realize how close Sanae had been from physically removing him from WildKat when he had offered a Game to Sho.

So yeah, Sanae was barely keeping himself from trying to intimidate Joshua into leaving his kid alone (not that it would work, it was _Joshua_ , but the urge was there anyway). He couldn't remember ever feeling so damn _protective_ of someone.

Basically, Sanae was very happy, very anxious, and very much a mess. Because while Sho was slowly learning how to be human, Sanae was, well… trying to learn how to be a _parent_.

Of course he'd been Sho's parent for a while now, but it was not the same. Trying to get a feral Noise child to grasp human concepts had nothing to do with the more traditional position he was now finding himself in. The more Sho progressed, the more Sanae felt he needed to keep pace with him, to offer him what any growing child needed.

He just had no clue what that was.

Which was how he found himself staring at the parenting books section of the local library, confused by the sheer number of manuals. If it was that complicated, how the heck did humans manage it?

Well. If they could learn, so could he. Right?

Fastforward three days, eleven books, and enough coffee to send a human to the hospital.

It was the end of the afternoon, the streets were full of people, and Sanae was cleaning a wall for his next mural. He wasn't even bothering to be discreet, instead using his power to push attention away from where he was and what he was doing, cheating like, like… like a Joshua, he wanted to say, which was probably a bit unfair, but right now he frankly didn't have any fuck left to give.

He was hiding from Sho, who would usually be at the café around that time. He _hated_ it. And so his mood was _awful_.

"YOU!" a voice screamed from the other side of the plaza.

Sanae froze. It was –unfortunately– not the first time that exact same voice had screamed at him in that exact tone. He turned toward Uzuki, who was marching to him with murder written on her face. Part of him had the instinct to cower, even if technically he was far more powerful than her, because daaaamn could she be terrifying when she wanted to be. Another part of him only saw an occasion to pass his nerves on someone.

"What?" he threw back curtly when she was close enough to hold a conversation.

She didn't stop there though, backing him up against the wall and grabbing him by the collar.

"What the _fuck_ do you think you're doing?" she hissed.

Sanae barely resisted the impulse to push her away, settling for glaring instead.

"I _was_ cleaning this wall. You know, before you decided to stop me. This wall a friend of yours?"

Uzuki legit shook him, making his head hit said wall.

"Don't joke around you… you… _argh_!"

Sanae swallowed down a quip. Even if he felt like picking up a fight, this sounded… serious. He just had no clue what had made Uzuki so mad at him.

"Why are you avoiding Sho?" she asked (accused, more like).  
"I'm not… OK," he amended, "I'm avoiding him, but that's… supposed to be a good thing. Is it not?"

Uzuki stared, managing to convey rage and utter confusion at the same time.

"What," she finally said.  
"It's… I don't want to be overbearing… that's a bad thing to be… and he needs time alone with his friends… that's what the books say," he finished lamely.

Uzuki stared some more. Opened her mouth. Closed it. Then she released Sanae to facepalm, both hands at once.

"I can't fucking believe it…" she muttered.  
"What?" Sanae asked, on the defensive.  
"You're a moron. Or just very, very clueless, I don't even know anymore. You can't just… Sho thinks you're mad at him! He's panicking over what he did wrong! I never saw him that upset!"

Sanae's heart sank. That was not what was supposed to happen. That was not what he wanted. He just wanted to make Sho happy.

"I…" Sanae began, then stopped, realizing he didn't know what to say.  
"You're coming back to the coffee shop with me, and you're going to apologize. Profusely."

Sanae nodded, feeling like the worst parent _ever_.

Uzuki grabbed his arm and proceeded to drag him toward Cat Street.

"I'm sorry," Sanae said after one or two minutes of silence. "For being so stupid."

Uzuki sighed.

"You're _trying_ to do well but gosh, try to think things through next time you have a new idea OK?"  
"Yes ma'am…"

She glanced at him.

"If you ever make him that upset again I swear to god I'll brain you with your espresso machine."  
"… that's weirdly specific."  
"Well you're being weirdly specifically stupid!"  
"Point taken."

(Sho was indeed upset, and looked so _worried_ upon seeing Sanae dragged toward him by Uzuki, but after Sanae apologized Sho hugged him. Insulted him, too, but that he deserved. And the fact that Sho seemed to never want to let go of him was far more important.)

(So maybe Sanae was not the _worst_ parent ever. Just a very clumsy one. But fortunately Sho had other people looking out for him, so it should be alright in the end.)


End file.
